Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[PrescottCR]

Good job in getting a good grinder! I don't know why it's so hard to convince people to invest in a grinder, and almost as hard to get them to believe they should be adjusting it regularly.

This is our 'monsoon' time of year here in the mountains of Arizona and I'm finding that I have to do a LOT of adjusting to keep up with constantly changing conditions. Pressure, humidity and temp are all over the place. No pucks are wasted if they get you to a good cup.

Mind the grind!

[citizen_smith]

After only 16 months of very light use (normally only a coffee or two on the weekend) my BES900 has had to go in for repairs. The machine seems to pressure up to pre-infuse but refuses to go any higher, I must say that I'm a little disappointed as with the limited use it gets and the strict cleaning and back-flushing regime it receives as per Phil's instructions I expected it to last a lot longer before breaking down.

I've dropped it in to the Brisbane Appliance Service Centre (Salisbury Qld) for repairs, has anyone dealt with this centre before? Do they do a good job?

As my machine is 16 months old I'd expect there has been the odd revision or two made to the model since I've purchased, would it be likely for me to see any 'upgrades' done to the machine when I pick it up again or just a stock standard repair job?

Thanks

Just an update, picked my machine up from Brisbane Appliance Centre today, according to the workshop sheet it had the following parts repaired/replaced:

1 x Valve safety kit
1 x probe set
1 x gasket kit
4 x screws

According to the repairman they have just started to service for Breville and this is the first BDB he has worked on, he did say he had another come in though the day before with the same symptoms as mine.

I got home and tried it out, two shots went down the sink as I had to dial the grinder back in, the third shot looked pretty good so hopefully all is now well.

[gjb]

Bought my BES900 machine in May to replace a EM6910 that had served me well for 6 years before the steam pump went. Unfortunately after only 7 weeks of weekend use it decided to stop working. The pump started running continuously after pulling a shot. I turned it off, waited a couple of hours, and turned it back on but no change. Eventually I called the service centre and was told it would have to be sent to Sydney for repair. They arranged a courier to collect it from the Central Coast and by the next day it was picked up and on it's way. I was impressed at this stage.

2 weeks later I have rung Breville Customer Service to be told the machine was received by the Service Centre today. I was dumbfounded. Where has my machine been for the last two weeks? Service Centre can't tell me that, all they can tell me is that it was received at the Service Centre today. I ask to speak to someone who can tell me more but apparently there is no more to tell me. When I ask how long I should expect for it to be repaired I am told they should know in about a week's time. That will be 3 weeks from me reporting the problem to them having an idea of how long it will be to fix. I only had the machine for 7 weeks!!! That will mean the machine has been in for repair for 30% of the time I have owned it. I am starting to regret the decision not to stick with Sunbeam. The BES900 has some great features but I suspect build quality and longevity is not amongst them. Personally I expect better for the price of this machine.

[water_dragon]

gjb says"[ I am starting to regret the decision not to stick with Sunbeam. The BES900 has some great features but I suspect build quality and longevity is not amongst them. Personally I expect better for the price of this machine.[/QUOTE] " I would say you should contact Breville and ask for an exchange machine, mine and so many thousand others are working fine. I would not personally of let them get away with this I would demand a new machine as you say they are not cheap but they make great coffee. I am like a dog with a bone over things like that I will not rest till I have the right result.

[Steve82]

gjb says"[ I am starting to regret the decision not to stick with Sunbeam. The BES900 has some great features but I suspect build quality and longevity is not amongst them. Personally I expect better for the price of this machine.

" I would say you should contact Breville and ask for an exchange machine, mine and so many thousand others are working fine. I would not personally of let them get away with this I would demand a new machine as you say they are not cheap but they make great coffee. I am like a dog with a bone over things like that I will not rest till I have the right result.[/QUOTE]

Yeah but its way easier to moan about it on the internet....

[TC]

was impressed at this stage.....2 weeks later I have rung Breville Customer Service to be told the machine was received by the Service Centre today. I was dumbfounded. Where has my machine been for the last two weeks? Service Centre can't tell me that, all they can tell me is that it was received at the Service Centre today...

Items do disappear in transit and then reappear days or weeks later. We have experienced it and I'd guess that it's not that uncommon. It may just be that the service centre is actually telling you the truth.

As you have 2 companies here, it's possibly a good idea to know where the failure occurred in transit before you choose a company to can?

[gjb]

" Yeah but its way easier to moan about it on the internet....

Thanks for the input Steve82. It's totally useless, adds no value, and just makes a long thread even longer, but hey, makes you feel good I'm sure.

I wasn't "moaning", I was simply letting others know of my experience in the hope that it either helps them or they might help me with their own advice or experiences. That's the value of a forum such as this.

I am not giving up on this water_dragon and continue to seek answers from Breville. The part I am finding difficult is speaking to someone who can provide answers. I am also seeking clarification from StarTrack on the exact delivery date.

[powerd]

Gjb - I am sorry your machine took so long to get to Breville, but that doesn't sound like it was Breville's fault but the couriers. I suggest you take that up with the courier but really, what can they do now?

I have ordered burrs and the free shims pack from them and found them very helpful and the items turned up in a reasonable time. I really love my machine and it works exactly as it should, although it is only fairly new so I would expect that. Others here seem to have had good experiences with their service department and good, often very quick turnaround times. I think a week to get the problem diagnosed and repaired would be a very fair time and then up to a week or so for return shipping to your home.

Perhaps you should wait for that length of time and see what happens, before making claims about bad service and unreliable machines? That hasn't been the experience of others here as far as my reading would suggest.

[Steve82]

Thanks for the input Steve82. It's totally useless, adds no value, and just makes a long thread even longer, but hey, makes you feel good I'm sure.

I wasn't "moaning", I was simply letting others know of my experience in the hope that it either helps them or they might help me with their own advice or experiences. That's the value of a forum such as this.

I am not giving up on this water_dragon and continue to seek answers from Breville. The part I am finding difficult is speaking to someone who can provide answers. I am also seeking clarification from StarTrack on the exact delivery date.

Haha no worries and don't worry I don't rely on posts in a forum to feel good, it was simply a tongue in cheek comment at yet at another addition to the moaning in this as you mentioned very long thread.

If you look up my posts you will see I have added quite a reasonable amount of good and helpful info in regards to my experiences using this machine.

Good luck to you.

[Vinitasse]

Perhaps you should wait for that length of time and see what happens, before making claims about bad service and unreliable machines? That hasn't been the experience of others here as far as my reading would suggest.

Oh really??!! I would suggest that you re-read the 4400+ posts to add a bit of balance and validity to your above assertion.

[Gnat]

As you would know, surfing the internet isn't a good representation of people's experiences with a machine; people are far more likely to post if they have a problem, so simply by glancing through a few threads isn't going to tell you the whole story. Especially since this is (probably) one of the largest BES900 thread on the internet, plenty of people come here for advice, so whilst there may be a large number of problems reported, as a percentage of owners they may be very small.

I for one have had a great experience with my machine, zero problems since i've had it. I can't comment on Breville customer service, since i've never had any problems with my machines!

[citizen_smith]

Gjb - I am sorry your machine took so long to get to Breville, but that doesn't sound like it was Breville's fault but the couriers. I suggest you take that up with the courier but really, what can they do now?

I have ordered burrs and the free shims pack from them and found them very helpful and the items turned up in a reasonable time. I really love my machine and it works exactly as it should, although it is only fairly new so I would expect that. Others here seem to have had good experiences with their service department and good, often very quick turnaround times. I think a week to get the problem diagnosed and repaired would be a very fair time and then up to a week or so for return shipping to your home.

Perhaps you should wait for that length of time and see what happens, before making claims about bad service and unreliable machines? That hasn't been the experience of others here as far as my reading would suggest.

Breville engaged the transit company and are therefore directly responsible for their actions, if the courier stuffs up it's up to Breville to fix it, make the customer happy and then reconsider the contract they have in place with their choice of courier company that they get to transit broken coffee machines around Australia.

[wilko23]

Those of you that have had issues with the portafilter flying off, have any of you contacted Breville or had it looked at by them? Just interested to see what the outcome of this was? I contacted Breville customer service today regarding this and the guy I spoke to on the phone was quite interested in what I had to say (he said he hadn't heard of this problem?!) but asked me to email through my concerns and that he would pass it on to their "experts" and get back to me... As much as it doesn't affect the taste of the coffee produced it shouldn't happen and should be rectified by Breville once it has been highlighted as a common issue, the same as the opv adjustment etc. I will post an update once I (hopefully) hear back... I encourage others to contact them to report the same problem if they haven't already....

[hamm]

I wonder if Roz (OP) ever feels responsible for the 4400+ posts in this thread. "LOOK WHAT I'VE CREATED!". Admit it Roz, this happens.

wilko23 - Post #12 in this thread: http://coffeesnobs.com.au/brewing-eq...ma-sunday.html lists the new features of the BES920 (Thanks Jimmytheboot) and #4 - new portafilter holder ramp design.

I wonder where that leaves BES900 owners exactly.. Isn't that a subtle way of Breville admitting that there's a design problem with the portafilter holder on the BES900? How can Breville Support then tell the customer that this isn't a known issue?

Makes me think a) There's no current solution for it from Breville - unless they release a new BES900-compatible portafilter with better lugs that hold it in better; and b) Maybe they should send out BES920's to all BES900 owners who complain about this (or other, 'fixed in BES920') issue/s.

[wilko23]

In my email to breville I made note of the fact the us version BES900XL now has a 'B' version which includes the new portafilter.... included photos of the drip tray, box and portafilter from an earlier post on this thread...